6 Types of Drug Tests That Will Help You Stay Compliant

Most com­pa­ny Safe­ty Direc­tors do not need to be remind­ed of the prob­lems cre­at­ed by sub­stance abuse in their work­places. These chal­lenges are present in every indus­try and are the lead­ing cause of absen­teeism, tar­di­ness, lost pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and on-the-job injuries.

To under­stand the dev­as­ta­tion of illic­it drug use in the Unit­ed States, the Nation­al Insti­tute on Drug Abuse reports drug over­dose deaths more than dou­bled between 2002 and 2015. Opi­oid and hero­in use have become the lead­ing cause of drug deaths, grow­ing at a faster rate than oth­er sub­stances. Cocaine deaths con­tin­ue to rise, fre­quent­ly in con­junc­tion with opi­oid use. What these sta­tis­tics high­light is the like­li­hood that sub­stance abuse may infil­trate every work­place if it has not already. The sit­u­a­tion is not so much about whether, but when. A fun­da­men­tal ele­ment of a suc­cess­ful work­place drug-free ini­tia­tive is a well-coor­di­nat­ed ran­dom drug test­ing pro­gram.

Establishing a Drug Testing Program

One of the first steps in elim­i­nat­ing work­place sub­stance abuse is to part­ner with a cer­ti­fied drug test­ing com­pa­ny to col­lab­o­rate on cre­at­ing the best pro­gram for your orga­ni­za­tion. The part­ner­ing com­pa­ny should help with the pre­sen­ta­tion of your drug-free work­place ini­tia­tive.

The drug test­ing com­pa­ny can design the test­ing plan that fits your organization’s needs. Ran­dom, on-site test­ing is the least dis­rup­tive and most effi­cient test­ing pro­to­col avail­able. Send­ing employ­ees to remote sites is not only dan­ger­ous but also will result in a notable loss of pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and increased costs.

Types of Drug Tests

Deter­min­ing the type of tests to con­duct is an impor­tant deci­sion for any Safe­ty Direc­tor and the drug test­ing part­ner. Pro­fes­sion­al, ful­ly licensed drug test­ing com­pa­nies offer var­i­ous meth­ods of test­ing for the whole range of sub­stances.

For exam­ple, drug tests may include:

Urine Test­ing: Most com­mon test for iden­ti­fy­ing the pres­ence of sub­stances. The sam­ples are dif­fi­cult to tam­per with effec­tive­ly or “cheat.” The test­ing can be lab-based or instant. This test­ing process can also test for the pres­ence of adul­ter­ants in the sam­ple.

Oral Flu­id Test­ing: A mouth swab will also iden­ti­fy or alert to the pres­ence of most sub­stances. Oral test­ing is the best “gen­der-neu­tral” test­ing pro­ce­dure and is appro­pri­ate to con­duct in full view of the tester. Sali­va test­ing is done using a lab-based process (not instant test­ing).

Hair Test­ing: Hair sam­pling can iden­ti­fy drug use over a much longer peri­od, up to nine­ty days, than urine or oral flu­id sam­pling.

Alco­hol Test­ing: Because alco­hol is a major con­trib­u­tor to work­place injuries and death, test­ing for the pres­ence of this sub­stance is essen­tial. The test­ing may be per­formed on either breath alco­hol or oral flu­id sam­ples.

Nico­tine Test­ing: For com­pa­nies with a smoke-free envi­ron­ment, nico­tine test­ing is also avail­able using a urine sam­ple.

Test­ing should be per­formed at any time of day or night at the work­place. Also, com­pa­nies can require pre-employ­ment and post-hir­ing tests.

USA Mobile Drug Testing

USAMDT of North­east Ohio can pro­vide all of the nec­es­sary types of drug tests and coun­sel­ing to help Safe­ty Direc­tors turn their com­pa­nies into safer and less dis­rup­tive work­places. USAMDT ser­vices will save time and increase pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. Safe­ty offi­cers can rest assured when their orga­ni­za­tions are tru­ly sub­stance abuse-free.

More­over, with an effec­tive pro­gram, you should expe­ri­ence an increase in morale among exist­ing employ­ees. Turnover will undoubt­ed­ly decrease as your employ­ees rec­og­nize that their work­ing envi­ron­ment is safer and less dis­rup­tive.

Do you need a drug test conducted at a certain date and time? Call us at and we will dispatch a mobile collection specialist to administer your drug tests at any location, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Are you looking for more information about drug testing, a drug free workplace program, or compliance? Call us at and we'll be happy to answer any questions you may have and tailor a program to your specific needs.